Fairtrade Visitor

Sara, an Old Westholmian, left us in 1983 when her family moved to Singapore where she went on to complete her studies. This led to a dramatic change in direction for Sara’s life and inspired the career she has chosen today; working with the people of Nepal and campaigning to improve the lives of children and women there.

She spent the morning in school as part of our activities relating to Fairtrade fortnight and enjoyed meeting current students to talk about her work in Nepal and here in the U.K.

Sara led the whole school assembly and really inspired the pupils with her description of her life and work. She then organised a workshop for Year 7, the aim of which was to develop the students’ understanding of Fairtrade before meeting with our own Fairtrade Committee.

Sara first established a strong connection to the country and more importantly it’s people, when she visited as a young student. After finishing her International Baccalaureate she decided to return to Nepal to trek along the Anapurna Cicuit and ended up staying to spend time living, teaching and working with the villagers of Sikles. She helped to change the attitudes and approach to learning of both the female students and teachers, and has since introduced the ‘Action Aid Literacy Programme for Women’ to Nepal and completed a PHD on Women in Education.

Sara continues to encourage child friendly and student focussed teaching throughtout Nepal and has recently produced a book of photographs taken by the people of Sikles to help raise money for the village; a copy of which she has donated to the School Library. Now as a Lecturer in Development studies at Liverpool John Moore’s University, Sara leads the Fairtrade Committee in the city, but also continues to travel back and forth to Nepal co-ordintaing projects and researching new opportunites in the village of Sikles.

Many thanks to Sara for taking the time to come and visit Westholme, we hope to keep up to date with her work and progress in campaigning for better lives for the people of Nepal.